Next E-Copyright Battle Factual Databases: Lawmakers

As if the battle for music and video copyright in cyberspace wasn't enough, it looks like Capitol Hill is ready for the battle of the online factual database. The House is pondering a proposed law to stop wholesale copying of materials like news archives, school guides, and other databases which don't have full copyright protection now.

The House Judiciary Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committees are due to hold a joint hearing on the bill in the next few weeks, a Commerce Committee spokesman told Reuters.

Supporters believe it would let database providers protect themselves against cutters and pasters who resell such materials or make them available for free online downloading, Reuters said, but critics like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Public Knowledge say the bill, if passed and signed, would severely restrict the public's information access.

"We think this is already dealt with under license and contract law," said Chamber of Commerce director of congressional and public affairs to Reuters, "and there's no reason to extend beyond that."

"Information, when not copyrighted, is something that can be shared," said Public Knowledge senior technology counsel Mike Godwin to the news wire. "Once you start putting fences around information...there's no freedom of inquiry. That doesn't make us smarter, it makes us dumber."

But supporters include the Software and Information Industry Association, whose policy expert Keith Kupferschind said the law could actually help make more database information available free.

"If database producers know they have some law to fall back on, when someone steals their database, they'll be much more willing to get that information out there for free," he told Reuters. "Without that law, there's really nothing to protect them."